After a month in the shop getting Hi-Lo's installed as well as a few other minor things, my mini is back! I know a month sounds long, but the mechanic had things he had to deal with at the same time. Gary at Imported Auto in Santa Barbara did a great job. He did a lot of extra work that he didn't need to. Steam cleaned, bead blasted, and painted all of the parts that he took off. It rides like a dream now and it looks amazing. I didn't like the way the back end sat extremely high compared to the front, so now it's nice and even. I'm happy to have Clive at home in Torrance, so if anyone wants to meet up, I'd love to meet some of the LA drivers.

 

MOALA is your gang then! Lots of Classic Minis out there in LA.

The colors on your first two shots look funky - I thought there was something wrong with the paint until I saw the last one. That wasn't the one button HDR mash in Photoshop was it?

 

Great looking Mini! If I still lived in Cali, I would give you a buzz, but I moved to NC about 2 years ago. I used to live in Ventura, so I was just down the road from Santa Barbara. Of course you live in Torrance, so that is a little farther.

 

what a beautiful classic! i live in LA.. but i own a 2007 Mini.. no classic.. i wish if i had one!

 

Looks good. I like.

 

Nope. They are true HDR shots. If we had a little more light they would have turned out more beleavable..haha. Oh well, I like the shots.

 

Congrats on getting Clive back!

True HDR? How so?

 

Nice, very nice. I like the shots, it looks like you have it waxed to a great depth.

Truely classic, glad you like all the work you had done. Did you put up any shots of the before and after mechanical stuff?

Hope to see more pictures.

 

By taking 3 exposures of the same pictures and then combining the tone maps to increase the dynaic range of the picture. They look kinda weird at first, but I've started to really like them.

haha, yeah the car needs some chip repair, a good polish, and wax. Although I do like the flat paint...makes it look more original. I'm pretty sure there is a thread somewhere in hear about my whole story for when I bought it with some pictures, but I'll put some in here so you guys can see the difference. I almost forgot that besides the Hi-Los, I also had the cones replaced with springs and all sorts of new bushings. Not to mention, the fuel pump went bad, so that's now been replaced, fuel tank cleaned out, and a fuel filter installed.

I have been having one problem lately...the clutch petal seems to get really stiff from time to time. It seems to happen when the car's been driven for a while and it's hot out. Maybe fluid's gone bad...something needs to be greased...any ideas?

Anyway, here are some pictures from before. As you can see...my car was a little rusty..

 

Wow, it really was high up in the back!

 

That's the beauty of HiLos - adjustable ride height. Although he probably has them high in order to compensate for any settling (it takes a few days for the new suspension to break in).

Nice looking machine!

 

Glad to see that you got your car back and it looks great

 

www.moalachat.com

 

Yeah, I wish I took a picture of the old cones...that were completly delaminated and rusty. Glad I got them off the car!

 

Congrats to a Wonderful mini like that Green COLOR tO !

Challe /

 

awesome beautiful mini

that's now my target, i like that version. 72 brg metallic

yum.
....sighs...

 

I'm considering putting in the blue springs, but I wonder if they'll really change the ride. Obviously on your car the OEM cones were shot so the replacement made a noticible difference, but I get conflicting reports form people whether or not the springs would help if they replace fairly servicable rubber cones (I have a 92 so my rubbers should still be in fairly good shape). I definitely want HiLos though, if for no other reason than that they can easily be tweaked to level the car (many, many Minis tend to settle crooked over the years asnd mine is no exception).

Also, Mini's recommendation was to replace the rubbers every 5-7 years - I wonder how long the spring-type units are rated for?

 

Go with the Greens. I know they are the "race" springs but even still they are not that stiff. That's what I had put in and the car rides like a dream. The guy who did all the work has a lot of experience with all of the different springs and he says that the "street" springs are just way too bouncy. Greenies FTW>

Thanks everyone for the compliments!